We spent a long weekend in Mammoth and just returned this afternoon. We’ll give you a full recap, of course. For now, just enjoy the beauty…

This mushroom was growing just across the way from our place. I say “was growing” because since I took the picture on Saturday, it has become decapitated. I’m really curious as to what that person did with it. I mean, the purpose wasn’t necessarily to kill it, since the stem is still intact. Mushroom soup anyone? Haha, that’s gross.

You can’t really tell, but this was a good size mushroom, about half a foot tall. Isn’t funny that when I saw it, one of my first thoughts was, “I have to take a picture of it for our blog!”

Changing the subject…last night I had fun watching the Oscars (with no commercials, thanks to Tivo). As D knows, this is “my night” to park myself in front of the t.v. for a good chunk of time without any guilt. I sent D to get our dinner from Island Grill. D is notorious for messing up our take-out orders, so last night he did a little role playing before he left, acting out exactly how he was going to order:

Cashier: How are you doing?
D: Well, thanks. I’ll take the [insert our order, reading off the take-out menu]
Cashier: What size drink?
D: Small, please.
Cashier: Anything else?
D: Nope, that’s all.
Cashier: OK, that’ll be [insert $ amount]

About five minutes after he left our home for the restaurant, the phone rings. It’s D.

D: Island Grill is the place on [insert cross-streets], right?
L: No! It’s the one on [insert street name]!
D: Oh, well I’m at [insert different Hawaiian take-out place] and the guy already gave me a sample, so can’t we just get food here?
L: No! Go to Island Grill!!

Lesson learned: We must also rehearse exactly how D will get to the restaurant in order to ensure he goes to the right place!

Our Saturday outing was at South Coast Plaza. We didn’t buy anything aside from food. For some reason, not very many clothes appeal to me lately, and the few items that do are way too expensive. Anyway, we ate at Boudin SF, which recently opened in the main part of South Coast. We really enjoyed the tomato soup in a bread bowl. The chicken sandwich was just OK. D thought the salad dressing on the organic greens that came with sandwich was “fantastic”.

Afterward k and I went on the merry-go-round, k’s first time!

We ended up not being allowed to ride like this (one person per horse!) so I got off and held onto k. She was OK for a little bit, but then became scared of the up and down motion, so I just held her the rest of the time. She had fun looking for and waving at D each time we passed him.

So colorful!

It’s kind of difficult to celebrate Valentine’s Day on a weekday. Instead of going out, I made a “special” dinner of salmon and asparagus on top of soba noodles and tiramisu for dessert. I really liked how the tiramisu turned out.

This would have probably looked better on a smaller plate, but it was delicious if I do say so myself.

I bought this kid-size beach chair for k as a Valentine’s Day present. It matches our beach chair and she loves sitting in it. Notice that she is hugging her Hello Kitty that she received from her Aunt and Uncle for Christmas.

This is k. I would like to tell you about all the cool places I have seen before my 1 year old birthday. Here is my Top 10 List…

#1 South Kohala Coast (Big Island)
#2 Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (Big island)
#3 Huntington Beach
#4 Berkeley
#5 Napa
#6 Seal Beach
#7 Laguna Beach
#8 Irvine Regional park
#9 El Dorado East Regional Park
#10 Fashion Island Mall

It was a lot of fun visitng all the places; however sitting in the car seat for hours was not.

My parents are cool. However, there are a couple things that bug me about them. For one, they make me brush my teeth and they think that if they say “brush brush” in a excited voice I will want to. Also they make me drink milk and sometimes I am not even thirsty. I am looking forward to year two. I haven’t been anywhere cool since I turned one; however I hear them talking about a place called Mammoth Mountain. Stay tuned!

This was the questioned posed to me by D tonight. Well, things have been busy, but not with anything exciting. The mundane activities of life certainly take up a lot of time. The highlight for this weekend was going to Home Depot to buy a new hose for the dryer and a fire extinguisher. Various magazine/newspaper articles put me on a safety kick. D actually had to go back to Home Depot because we bought the wrong kind of hose, which is very typical of us non-do-it-yourselfers. Afterward we ate lunch at Fuji’s Famous Burgers. k slept through the whole lunch, but we saved some for her. The place is small, but there’s plenty of tables and it is nice and clean. We shared a teriyaki-avocado burger and a beef and chicken teriyaki plate and fried zucchini. We were still hungry and also split a spam musubi, which was probably the best part of the meal. If we go again, maybe I’ll try one of their burritos with fried rice–sounds interesting.

Here are some pre-race pictures from last weekend.


Cute mile markers. D is contemplating running a full marathon next year. Yes, I think he’s crazy.

We carbo-loaded alongside D with a spaghetti dinner on Sat. night. k seemed to enjoy it!

As I was running my 3rd Half-Marathon on a Sunday it was refreshing to see phrases on shirts that said “God Is My Coach” and “To God Be The Glory” and I wasn’t even at church. The temperature was pretty ideal during the Surf City USA Half-marathon; however the rain and wind weren’t. My shoes were already wet by the time the race started. At mile three things were looking pretty good since I was pacing under 9 minute miles. By this time the back of my shirt was soaked along with my shorts. Then the race turned a little uphill and I was passing people. However, I ended up getting a side stitch during miles 4-6 and gave up some ground. Then on mile 8 I started to cramp in my legs. And on mile 10 it worsened. When hardship comes my way, I only know of one solution. So I whispered out loud, “Help me Jesus” and I was able to get through the race staying at about a 9 minute pace. The result was a personal best of under 1 hour and 58 minutes and I believe my best physical accomplishment.

I have to go now and eat junk food.

This afternoon k and I took a walk to our mailbox. Usually she goes with Sasa, but Sasa had jury duty today. I led the way and mostly waited for k to catch up. k kept on stopping along the path, looking at the leaves on the grass and the lines in the cement. She also stopped to listen to the various barking dogs and chattering people.

Of course, she had to stop to look and wave at the kitty.

During our walk I reflected back to the different stages I have been in while walking to the mailbox. I remember rushing to the mailbox after work after getting home from long days of work. I remember walking a little slower when I was pregnant. I remember carrying k in a sling when she was so tiny she could fit. And now, she’s walking there herself. Amazing.